‘A leap of faith’: How tragedy inspired Rosie Waterland and James Joseph’s Big Aussie Lap van trip
When tragedy struck, one couple decided to make a leap of faith and travel around Australia in a van with no organised plan of where they were headed.
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A tragic event resulted in a change of perspective for Aussie comedian, writer, author and actress Rosie Waterland.
Ms Waterland is known for her popular satirical recaps of the Australian TV show The Bachelor she did for media group Mammamia, as well as her books The Anti Cool Girl and Every Lie I’ve Ever Told.
Her perspective on life was changed when her mum passed away in January, leading her to pack up her life and travel around Australia in a van with her partner, James Joseph.
“My perspective on a lot of stuff changed and my approach to what this year was going to be,” she said.
“You only live once, so I thought, let’s do a big lap of Australia because there is so much of the country I haven’t seen.”
“It took losing someone really important to me to rethink my priorities and take a leap of faith, and that’s what we did.”
Ms Waterland and Mr Joseph put their relationship to the test, with travelling in the van being the most time they have spent together.
“James decided to take a couple years off work and live in a van for the last 18 months,” she said.
“We had sort of being seeing each other for a bit while he was on the road. It wasn’t something that we thought we be a serious thing between us. After my mum passed we went on a mini trip for three weeks and loved it so we thought ‘why not’. The most time we have spent together in our relationship has been living in a van together.” With zero plans on where to go and what to do, the couple decided to leave the fate of their adventures in the hands of Ms Waterland’s 60,000 Instagram followers.
“I have built some followers over the works that I have done over the past decade and we thought let’s ask them to submit their recommendations, we call them recos,” she said.
“We have had thousands and thousands of recommendations of people sharing the quirky, unique sometimes unknown things in their town that we should visit.”
She said Townsville has been, by far, the place they have received the most recommendations since setting off from Sydney in April.
“We’ve had more suggestions to stop and explore Townsville than anywhere else,” she said.
“More than Brisbane, Gold Coast, the bigger cities in NSW. We’ve had so many proud Townsvillians that have given us a huge list of things to do and see.”
The top things to do, as recommended by locals, the couple have done include visiting Magnetic Island, The Strand and Castle Hill, trying food stops such as PB&J’s, Ottos and Shorehouse, and enjoying the Riverway Lagoons and Queens Garden.
Aside from discovering new parts of Australia and meeting new people, Ms Waterland said a big lesson she has learned on the road so far is to embrace the minimalist lifestyle.
“I’ve learnt that I tend to be a maximalist in terms of what I need with me at all times, particularly my wardrobe,” she said.
“I was insisting to James the other day that I needed a new hat, he said I already had enough hats. I said no, I’ve only got two or three in the van. He went back and checked and counted, and I had nine. So I’ve learnt to cut back on stuff. You don’t really need much. It’s given me a lesson in how much I don’t need to consume or buy.”
Documenting their travels on each of their social media, the couple also has a Patreon page, with over 500 keen followers interested in the couple’s travels and adventures along the way.
A talented artist, Mr Joseph, creates a postcard for each of their stops, depicting the couple in cartoon form at one of their many stops along the way.
Ms Waterland writes a handwritten message on each of the cards, which they send to the followers, and do blog posts on the places they have been.
“We give cool tips that we have discovered. I really think the recos we have discovered are better than anything you can find in a travel guide,” Ms Waterland said.
“People are giving us the cool, specialised stuff. Even though there are the big touristy things, which we also do, the funest things we have done have been the random things people have told us to go to.”
Follow the couples journey on their Instagram pages @rosiewaterland and @jajo.in.a.van
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Originally published as ‘A leap of faith’: How tragedy inspired Rosie Waterland and James Joseph’s Big Aussie Lap van trip
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